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April 26, 2021 - From Frosty to Fire in Northwestern Siberia
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In less than three weeks, a swath of western Siberia swapped a thick blanket of snow for a cloud of smoke as many dozens of fires ignited near ice-covered lakes. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of fires burning near and north of Omsk, Russia on April 22, 2021.
Most of the fires are burning on dark green forest edges south of the Ob River in Tyumen and Omsk Oblasts, which are located in western Siberia and sit just north of the border with Kazakhstan. Some fires appear to burn in agricultural land as well. Each red hot spot marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When accompanied by typical smoke—as in this image—such hot spots mark actively burning fire.
According to the Weather Atlas online, “April is a frosty spring month in Omsk, Russia, with average temperatures ranging between max 8.9˚C (48˚F) and min 1.3˚C (34.3˚F)”. However, April 2021 has not been average. On April 15, Omsk recorded a high temperature of 72˚F (22.2˚C) – a full 24˚F above average. And, as is becoming all to frequent, rapidly rising spring temperatures accompanied by gusting April winds sparks an early and ferocious start to wildfire season.
On Earth Day (April 22) this year, ReliefWeb published a graphic report created by the US Department of State (US DOS) Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) titled “Humanitarian Impacts of Wildfire Disasters in 2020”. The entry for Russia, discussing only fires from July-August 2020, reads, “A record-breaking heat wave sparked wildfires in Siberia, scorched over 74 million acres, melted permafrost and Arctic ice, and caused respiratory distress due to smoke and excess CO2.”
The rapid snowmelt and hundreds of early fires seen across southern Russia this April does not bode well for the 2021 fire season. Nor does a report published by The Siberian Times on January 27 with the title “Peat fires continue to burn at air temperature of -50C in northeastern Yakutia”. The story documents a peat fire filmed burning on January 23 in far northern Siberia in the frigid dead-of-winter in an area struck by last year’s wildfires. A second fire has also been documented in the same region. The story states that “the fire is burning in the area close to the village of Udarnik. The summer fire didn’t stop. The filming was made in November, but as the local tell us, several fires are still active”.
On April 13, 2021, NASA’s Earth Observatory published an Image of the Day titled “Omsk Shakes off Winter Frost” which showed a comparison of Omsk on April 1, when the region was blanketed in snow, and on April 13, when snowmelt was well underway. The roll-over comparison between the change in the snow pack in less than two weeks was impressive; however, comparing the April 1 image to today’s image of the region ablaze under billowing smoke is truly stunning. To view the images published by Earth Observatory, click here.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 4/22/2021
Resolutions:
1km (643.1 KB), 500m (2.1 MB), 250m (6.4 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
In less than three weeks, a swath of western Siberia swapped a thick blanket of snow for a cloud of smoke as many dozens of fires ignited near ice-covered lakes. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of fires burning near and north of Omsk, Russia on April 22, 2021.
Most of the fires are burning on dark green forest edges south of the Ob River in Tyumen and Omsk Oblasts, which are located in western Siberia and sit just north of the border with Kazakhstan. Some fires appear to burn in agricultural land as well. Each red hot spot marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When accompanied by typical smoke—as in this image—such hot spots mark actively burning fire.
According to the Weather Atlas online, “April is a frosty spring month in Omsk, Russia, with average temperatures ranging between max 8.9˚C (48˚F) and min 1.3˚C (34.3˚F)”. However, April 2021 has not been average. On April 15, Omsk recorded a high temperature of 72˚F (22.2˚C) – a full 24˚F above average. And, as is becoming all to frequent, rapidly rising spring temperatures accompanied by gusting April winds sparks an early and ferocious start to wildfire season.
On Earth Day (April 22) this year, ReliefWeb published a graphic report created by the US Department of State (US DOS) Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) titled “Humanitarian Impacts of Wildfire Disasters in 2020”. The entry for Russia, discussing only fires from July-August 2020, reads, “A record-breaking heat wave sparked wildfires in Siberia, scorched over 74 million acres, melted permafrost and Arctic ice, and caused respiratory distress due to smoke and excess CO2.”
The rapid snowmelt and hundreds of early fires seen across southern Russia this April does not bode well for the 2021 fire season. Nor does a report published by The Siberian Times on January 27 with the title “Peat fires continue to burn at air temperature of -50C in northeastern Yakutia”. The story documents a peat fire filmed burning on January 23 in far northern Siberia in the frigid dead-of-winter in an area struck by last year’s wildfires. A second fire has also been documented in the same region. The story states that “the fire is burning in the area close to the village of Udarnik. The summer fire didn’t stop. The filming was made in November, but as the local tell us, several fires are still active”.
On April 13, 2021, NASA’s Earth Observatory published an Image of the Day titled “Omsk Shakes off Winter Frost” which showed a comparison of Omsk on April 1, when the region was blanketed in snow, and on April 13, when snowmelt was well underway. The roll-over comparison between the change in the snow pack in less than two weeks was impressive; however, comparing the April 1 image to today’s image of the region ablaze under billowing smoke is truly stunning. To view the images published by Earth Observatory, click here.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 4/22/2021
Resolutions:
1km (643.1 KB), 500m (2.1 MB), 250m (6.4 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
